The Hospital has grown to be one of the busiest wildlife hospitals in the world, admitting over 9000 animals a year – a service that is provided free of charge to the community.
Our Mission is to be a world leader in the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of sick and injured wildlife, and play an integral role in conservation, research and education projects to ensure the survival of Australia’s iconic species.
Day Volunteering
Come and experience Volunteering for just a day – help your community, talk to people and spend some time around our native animals. Come and volunteer for an iconic Gold Coast not-for- profit organisation. You may be wishing to try out volunteering just for fun, or maybe before committing to one of our long term volunteer programs.
Park Volunteering
National Trust of Australia (Qld) Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary’s Park Volunteers play a key part of daily Sanctuary operations and in making our guests feel welcome. Park volunteers are stationed throughout the Sanctuary and are involved with greeting our guests of all nationalities, answering questions about our animals and attractions, helping guests to locate shows and facilities, and helping our guests to get the maximum enjoyment out of their day.
We are looking for individuals with a happy disposition who are passionate about customer care, who love talking about animals, and who are committed to providing an unforgettable customer experience. The person who undertakes this role must work well independently and in a team environment, and have exceptional interpersonal skills.
Teen Volunteer Program
The Teen Volunteer program consists of a team of friendly young people who attend the sanctuary during weekends and school holidays, to welcome, inform and assist visitors to enjoy the attractions. This is a twelve month program only. You must be a person who is comfortable talking to visitors as this is the major part of the role. There will be some animal interaction, but major focus is on providing friendly visitor contact. The teen volunteer program operates each weekend during term, on school holidays and on public holidays. Each shift, you will work under the supervision of a Duty Volunteer.
Wildlife Volunteering
This volunteer program involves working alongside our Wildlife Keepers on their daily rounds, assisting them with the care of animals in the Sanctuary collection, and within the Presentations Department (this team manages the daily shows that educate the public about wildlife and conservation).
The rounds that volunteers can work on include: mammals, birds, reptiles, Presentations, Wild Experiences, sheep shearing assistant, or koalas. The range of mammals, birds and reptiles is extensive, and includes a huge variety of Australian native fauna such as kangaroos, wombats, dingoes, emus, lorikeets, snakes, frogs and even stick insects!
Most shifts are from 7.00 am – 4.00 pm, with some shorter shifts on certain rounds, and we are looking for volunteers to help out every day of the week.
Horticulture Gardening Volunteering
The Horticulture department manages all botanical displays throughout the Sanctuary, as well as off-site at three established Eucalyptus plantations where we grow feed for our collection of koalas and other herbivorous mammals. We are in the process of improving our botanical displays at the Sanctuary so it is a very exciting time to come on board and be part of the team that is making these improvements. No experience is required and full training will be provided. The Gardening Gurus volunteers are a small team of gardening enthusiasts who work each Monday, Wednesday or Thursday from 8.00 am to 2.30pm.
Vetinerary Volunteering
The Hospital and Wildlife Hospital Foundation are very privileged to have such a great team of passionate volunteers who give of their time to help save our wildlife. Either by assisting in the Hospital, or by helping us raise much needed donations, our volunteers ensure we can continue to save the lives of the native wildlife patients admitted to the Hospital.
Work Experience
Currumbin Wildlife Hospital offers valuable work experience placements to veterinary students, however due to the high volume of applications received we only offer these placements to clinical year students.
The role of the student will be to assist the vets and nurses with triage, diagnostic work up, surgery and general husbandry. Examination techniques will be taught, as well as anaesthesia, common medications used for wildlife and dose rates, pathology and in house lab work.
Students are treated as part of the vet team and will leave with valuable information and experience that will assist them with their course and future career. Australian students will be accepted for a minimum of two weeks, although a longer stay of three or four weeks will be much more beneficial.
Only one international student will be accepted at any time and for a maximum placement time of four weeks.
Certificate IV Veterinary Nursing
ACM40412 Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing is a nationally recognised course being delivered in collaboration with Northcoast TAFE and Currumbin Wildlife Hospital. This course offers a unique interactive opportunity that allows students to learn specialised skills needed in caring for sick or injured animals during all avenues of admission, examination, diagnosis, treatment, surgery, post operative care, and rehabilitation.
There are limited positions and the selected Veterinary Nurse students enjoy a wide range of responsibilities and become part of the team, playing an integral role in the veterinary hospital under the supervision and direction of the veterinarians, and nursing staff.
